,br> Small compared to other Big10 sociology programs (16 faculty), students engage with research focused on solving real-world problems. Faculty collaborate with each other and with people across disciplines, including computer science, psychology, anthropology, political science, criminology, biology, neuroscience, medicine, public health, art, marketing, and business. Our faculty also work with community stakeholders and community-based non-profit organizations.
These collaborations lead our faculty and students to ask and answer interesting questions. Check out our recent research, including open-access versions of faculty and student publications, to discover how sociology faculty are tackling issues in drug use; pornography addiction; social networks; homelessness; delinquency; domestic violence; survey questionnaire design and polling; minority health disparities; science identity; sexualities and LGBTQ+ rights; religion and politics; hate crime reporting; and sociology pedagogy among many others.
We are committed to equipping undergraduate students with the critical thinking and analytical skills that put them on the path to meaningful and rewarding careers. Alumni have launched their careers with community organizations such as Voice of Hope, Community Learning Centers, and Teach for America; government agencies like the Department of Agriculture, the state legislature, and law enforcement; and private sector businesses such as HUDL, Talent+, Gallup, NelNet, and insurance companies. Our undergraduate students also go on to law school, medical school and professional programs in the health fields, or to complete an MBA or graduate programs in sociology or related disciplines.
Our MA and PhD students can specialize in the sociology of health, families, social inequalities, or research methodology, benefiting from a small student-to-faculty ratio. We train graduate students for both traditional academic jobs at colleges and universities, as well as work in the public and private sector. We have a long tradition of training students for successful placements at non-academic positions, including think tanks, research organizations, government agencies, non-profit service organizations, and for-profit organizations.
2020
Survey Costs: Where Are We and What Is the Way Forward?, Kristen M. Olson, James Wagner, and Raeda Anderson
Is perception of inability to procreate a temporal phenomenon? A longitudinal exploration of changes and determinants among women and men of reproductive age in Germany, Jasmin Passet-Wittig, Martin Bujard, Julia McQuillan, and Arthur L. Greil
Paid Paternity Leave-taking in the United States, Richard J. Petts, Chris Knoester, and Qi Li
Mutual Influence? Gender, Partner Pregnancy Desires, Fertility Intentions, and Birth Outcomes in U.S. Heterosexual Couples, Colleen M. Ray, Sela R. Harcey, Julia McQuillan, and Arthur L. Greil
Competing forces of withdrawal and disease avoidance in the risk networks of people who inject drugs, Elspeth Ready, Patrick Habecker, Roberto Abadie, Bilal Khan, and K. Dombrowski
Competing forces of withdrawal and disease avoidance in the risk networks of people who inject drugs, Elspeth Ready, Patrick Habecker, Roberto Abadie, Bilal Khan, and Kirk Dombrowski
Immunization strategies in networks with missing data, Samuel Frederick Rosenblatt, Jeffrey A. Smith, G. Robin Gauthier, and Laurent Hébert-Dufresne
Immunization strategies in networks with missing data, Samuel F. Rosenblatt, Jeffrey A. Smith, G. Robin Gauthier, and Laurent Hébert-Dufresne
The Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 on Older Latino Mortality: The Rapidly Diminishing Latino Paradox, Rogelio Sáenz and Marc A. Garcia
State-Level Determinants of Hate Crime Reporting: Examining the Impact of Structural and Social Movement Influences, Heather L. Scheuerman, Christie L. Parris, Alison H. Faupel, and Regina E. Werum
The Politics of Religious Nones, Philip Schwadel
Estimating Contextual Effects from Ego Network Data, Jeffrey A. Smith and G. Robin Gauthier
Male/Female Is Not Enough: Adding Measures of Masculinity and Femininity to General Population Surveys, Jolene Smyth and Kristen Olson
A Comparison of Fully Labeled and Top-Labeled Grid Question Formats, Jolene Smyth and Kristen M. Olson
How Well Do Interviewers Record Responses to Numeric, Interviewer Field-code, and Open-ended Narrative Questions in Telephone Surveys?, Jolene Smyth and Kristen M. Olson
Soldiers to Scientists: Military Service, Gender, and STEM Degree Earning, Christina Steidl, Regina E. Werum, Sela R. Harcey, Jacob Absalon, and Alice MillerMacPhee
Soldiers to Scientists: Military Service, Gender, and STEM Degree Earning, Christina Steidl, Regina E. Werum, Sela R. Harcey, Jacob Absalon, and Alice MillerMacPhee
Pregnancy happiness: implications of prior loss and pregnancy intendedness, Stacy Tiemeyer, Karina Shreffler, and Julia McQuillan
Are self-description scales better than agree/disagree scales?, Jerry Timbrook, Jolene Smyth, and Kristen M. Olson
How Do Interviewers and Respondents Navigate Sexual Identity Questions in a CATI Survey?, Jerry Timbrook, Jolene Smyth, and Kristen M. Olson
A comparison of frequency of alcohol and marijuana use using short message service surveying and survey questionnaires among homeless youth, Kimberly A. Tyler and Kristen M. Olson
Informal Science Experiences among Urban and Rural Youth: Exploring Differences at the Intersections of Socioeconomic Status, Gender and Ethnicity, Patricia Wonch Hill, Julia McQuillan, Eileen A. Hebets, Amy N. Spiegel, and Judy Diamond
Changes in Religiosity Among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Emerging Adults, Brandi Woodell and Philip Schwadel
Fifty Shades of Leather and Misogyny: An Investigation of Anti-Woman Perspectives among Leathermen, Meredith G. F. Worthen and Trenton M. Haltom
Intensive Referral of Veterans to Mutual-Help Groups: A Mixed-Methods Implementation Evaluation, Lance Brendan Young, Kathleen M. Grant, R. Dario Pulido, Jamie L. Simpson, Kimberly A. Tyler, and Christine Timkof
2019
“Money Helps”: People who inject drugs and their perceptions of financial compensation and its ethical implications, Roberto Abadie, Brandon Brown, and Celia B. Fisher
Migration to the US among rural Puerto Ricans who inject drugs: influential factors, sources of support, and challenges for harm reduction interventions, Roberto Abadie, Patrick Habecker, C. Gelpi-Acosta, and Kirk Dombrowski
Bat Meets Girl: Adapting the Dark Knight’s Love Life to the Big Screen, Brandon Bosch
Treating Participation as an Assignment, Brandon Bosch
A Red-State View of Religious Liberty and Nondiscrimination Protection for LGBT People, Kelsy Burke and Emily Kazyak
The Intergenerational Transmission of Discrimination: Children’s Experiences of Unfair Treatment and Their Mothers’ Health at Midlife, Cynthia G. Colen, Qi Li, Corinne Reczek, and David R. Williams
Cohort Differences in Cognitive Impairment and Cognitive Decline Among Mexican-Americans Aged 75 Years or Older, Brian Downer, Marc A. Garcia, Mukaila Raji, and Kyriakos S. Markides
Media Exposure and Community Perception of Alcoholism among Female Adolescents in South-West Nigeria, Rowland Edet and Julianah Babajide
A Qualitative Study of Changes in the Traditional Roles of Housewives in Ibadan, Southwest Nigeria, Rowland Edet, Julianah Babajide, and Oluwayimika Ekundina
Culture and the Development of Traditional Medicine in Africa, Rowland Edet, Oyedolapo Isaac Bello, and Julianah Babajide
Humans in the Loop: Incorporating Expert and Crowd-sourced Knowledge for Predictions Using Survey Data, Anna Filippova, Connor Gilroy, Ridhi Kashyap, Antje Kirchner, Allison C. Morgan, Kivan Polimis, Adaner Usmani, and Tong Wang
Biological Risk Profiles Among Latino Subgroups in the Health and Retirement Study, Catherine García and Jennifer A. Ailshire
Biological Risk Profiles Among Latino Subgroups in the Health and Retirement Study, Catherine García and Jennifer A. Ailshire
Racial/Ethnic and Nativity Differences in Cognitive Life Expectancies Among Older Adults in the United States, Marc A. Garcia, Brian Downer, Chi-Tsun Chiu, Joseph L. Saenz, Sunshine Rote, and Rebeca Wong
Demography of Aging, Marc A. Garcia, Catherine García, and Kyriakos Markides
Disability and the Immigrant Health Paradox: Gender and Timing of Migration, Marc A. Garcia, Adriana M. Reyes, and Sunshine Rote
Change in Motherhood Status and Fertility Problem Identification: Implications for Changes in Life Satisfaction, Arthur L. Greil, Julia McQuillan, Andrea R. Burch, Michele H. Lowry, Stacy Tiemeyer, and Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins
Give Us a Twirl: Male Baton Twirlers’ Embodied Resistance in a Feminized Terrain, Trenton M. Haltom
Political Polarization and Long-Term Change in Public Support for Environmental Spending, Eric W. Johnson and Philip Schwadel
Review of How Places Make Us: Novel LBQ Identities in Four Small Cities, by Japonica Brown-Saracino., Emily Kazyak
Doing family: The reproduction of heterosexuality in accounts of parenthood, Emily Kazyak and Nicholas K. Park
Economic Hardship during Childhood Increases the Risk of Premature Death Later in Life, Blakelee R. Kemp
Mixed Methods in Body and Embodiment Research, Samantha Kwan and Trenton M. Haltom
Gender, Millennials, and leisure constraints: Exploring golf’s participation decline, Lee Phillip McGinnis, James W. Gentry, and Trenton M. Haltom
Network Effects in Blau Space: Imputing Social Context from Survey Data, Miller McPherson and Jeffrey A. Smith
Physical Performance Trajectories and Mortality Among Older Mexican Americans, Miriam Mutambudzi, Nai-Wei Chen, Bret Howrey, Marc A. Garcia, and Kyriakos S. Markides
Gender and Age of Migration Differences in Mortality among Older Mexican Americans, Adriana M. Reyes and Marc A. Garcia
Late Life Depressive Symptoms and Cognitive Function among Older Mexican Adults: The Past and the Present, Joseph L. Saenz, Marc A. Garcia, and Brian Downer
Sexual Behaviours of Adolescents in Creek Town, Cross River State, Nigeria, Kabiru K. Salami and Rowland E. Edet
Partner congruence on fertility intentions and values: Implications for birth outcomes, Karina M. Shreffler, Stacy Tiemeyer, Julia McQuillan, Arthur L. Greil, and Tiffany Spierling
A Social Space Approach to Testing Complex Hypotheses: The Case of Hispanic Marriage Patterns in the United States, Jeffrey A. Smith
Childhood Misfortune and Handgrip Strength Among Black, White, and Hispanic Americans, Natalie R. Smith, Kenneth F. Ferraro, Blakelee R. Kemp, Patricia M. Morton, Sarah A. Mustillo, and Jacqueline L. Angel
Effects of Stem and Response Order on Response Patterns in Satisfaction Ratings, Jolene D. Smyth, Glenn D. Israel, Milton G. Newberry III, and Richard G. Hull
Within-Household Selection Methods: A Critical Review and Experimental Examination, Jolene Smyth, Kristen M. Olson, and Mathew Stange
Drawing on LGB Identity to Encourage Participation and Disclosure of Sexual Orientation in Surveys, Mathew Stange, Jolene D. Smyth, and Kristen M. Olson
Understanding Daily Depression, Drinking, and Marijuana Use Among Homeless Youth Using Short Message Service Surveying, Kimberly A. Tyler, Kristen M. Olson, and Colleen M. Ray
Short Message Service Surveying With Homeless Youth: Findings From a 30-Day Study of Sleeping Arrangements and Well-Being, Kimberly A. Tyler, Kristen Olson, and Colleen M. Ray
Understanding Daily Depression, Drinking, and Marijuana Use among Homeless Youth using Short Message Service Surveying, Kimberly Tyler, Kristen M. Olson, and Colleen M. Ray
Avoiding the Major Causes of Death: Does Childhood Misfortune Reduce the Likelihood of Being Disease Free in Later Life?, Monica M. Williams, Blakelee R. Kemp, Kenneth F. Ferraro, and Sarah A. Mustillo
2018
“It Ruined My Life”: The effects of the War on Drugs on people who inject drugs (PWID) in rural Puerto Rico, Roberto Abadie, C. Gelpi-Acosta, C. Davila, A. Rivera, Melissa Welch-Lazoritz, and Kirk Dombrowski
Establishing trust in HIV/HCV research among people who inject drugs (PWID): Insights from empirical research, Roberto Abadie, Shira Goldenberg, Melissa Welch-Lazoritz, and Celia B. Fisher
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and a ‘‘Death With Dignity’’, Jennifer A. Andersen
Does insulin therapy matter? Determinants of diabetes care outcomes, Jennifer A. Andersen and Larry Gibbs
Self-Rated Health Trajectories among Married Americans: Do Disparities Persist over 20 Years?, Terceira A. Berdahl and Julia McQuillan
Bad Boys and Final Girls: Fleshing Out Gender in Slasher and Horror Media, Brandon Bosch
Book review: Becoming Un-Orthodox: Stories of Ex-Hasidic Jews, by Lynn Davidman., Kelsy Burke
Why the Christian right opposes porngraphy but still supports Trump, Kelsy Burke
Do Listeners Perceive Interviewers’ Attributes from their Voices and Do Perceptions Differ by Question Type?, Nuttirudee Charoenruk and Kristen Olson
Lower Risk of 10-Year Incident Cognitive Impairment for Mexican Americans Aged 75 and Older in 2004-05 Compared to 1993-94, Brian Downer, Marc A. Garcia, Mukaila Raji, and Kyriakos S. Markides
The Role of Education in the Relationship Between Age of Migration to the United States and Risk of Cognitive Impairment Among Older Mexican Americans, Brian Downer, Marc A. Garcia, Joseph Saenz, Kyriakos S. Markides, and Rebeca Wong
Sociocultural variability in the Latino population: Age patterns and differences in morbidity among older US adults, Catherine Garcia, Marc A. Garcia, and Jennifer A. Alishire
Life Expectancies With Depression by Age of Migration and Gender Among Older Mexican Americans, Catherine García, Marc A. Garcia, Chi-Tsun Chiu, Fernando I. Rivera, and Mukaila Raji
A Comprehensive Analysis of Morbidity Life Expectancies Among Older Hispanic Subgroups in the United States: Variation by Nativity and Country of Origin, Marc A. Garcia, Catherine Garcia, Chi-Tsun Chiu, Mukaila Raji, and Kyriakos S. Markides
Erratum: A Comprehensive Analysis of Morbidity Life Expectancies Among Older Hispanic Subgroups in the United States: Variation by Nativity and Country of Origin (Table 3 & Figure 2), Marc A. Garcia, Catherine Garcia, Chi-Tsun Chiu, Mukaila Raji, and Kyriakos S. Markides
Physical Functioning and Disability Trajectories by Age of Migration Among Mexican Elders in the United States, Marc A. Garcia and Adriana M. Reyes
Prevalence and Trends in Morbidity and Disability Among Older Mexican Americans in the Southwestern United States, 1993–2013, Marc A. Garcia and Adriana M. Reyes
Age of Migration and the Incidence of Cognitive Impairment: A Cohort Study of Elder Mexican-Americans, Marc A. Garcia, Adriana M. Reyes, Brian Downer, Joseph L. Saenz, Rafael A. Samper-Ternent, and Mukaila Raji
The role of education in the association between race/ethnicity/nativity, cognitive impairment, and dementia among older adults in the United States, Marc A. Garcia, Joseph Saenz, Brian Downer, and Rebeca Wong
Age of Migration Differentials in Life Expectancy With Cognitive Impairment: 20-Year Findings From the Hispanic-EPESE, Marc A. Garcia, Joseph L. Saenz, Brian Downer, Chi-Tsun Chiu, Sunshine Rote, and Rebeca Wong
Perceived Discrimination and Adolescent Sleep in a Community Sample, Bridget J. Goosby, Jacob Cheadle, Whitney Strong-Bak, Taylor C. Roth, and Timothy D. Nelson
Intensive Referral to Mutual-Help Groups: A Field Trial of Adaptations for Rural Veterans, Kathleen M. Grant, Lance Brendan Young, Kimberly A. Tyler, Jamie L. Simpson, R. Dario Pulido, and Christine Timko
Relationship Satisfaction Among Infertile Couples: Implications of Gender and Self-Identification, Arthur L. Greil, Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins, Julia McQuillan, Michele H. Lowry, Andrea R. Burch, and Karina M. Shreffler
Injection Partners, HCV, and HIV Status among Rural Persons Who Inject Drugs in Puerto Rico, Patrick Habecker, Roberto Abadie, Melissa L. Welch-Lazoritz, Juan Carlos Reyes, Bilal Khan, and Kirk Dombrowski
Choose the Method for Aggregating Religious Identities that Is Most Appropriate for Your Research, Conrad Hackett, Philip Schwadel, Gregory A. Smith, Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac, and Claire Gecewicz
Book Review: Savin-Williams, Ritch C. 2017. Mostly Straight: Sexual Fluidity among Men, Trenton M. Haltom
Latent Risk Subtypes Based on Injection and Sexual Behavior Among People Who Inject Drugs in Rural Puerto Rico, Dane Hautala, Roberto Abadie, Courtney Thrash, Juan Carlos Reyes, and Kirk Dombrowski
Juvenile Curfews, Katherine Hazen and Eve Brank
Shoes @ the Krasl: Photographs, Michael R. Hill
Why Sociology Needs Science Fiction, Daniel Hirschman, Philip Schwadel, Rick Searle, Erica Deadman, and Ijlal Naqvi
Are Biological Science Knowledge, Interests, and Science Identity Framed by Religious and Political Perspectives in the United States?, Joseph C. Jochman, Alexis Swendener, Julia McQuillan, and Luke Novack
Fertility and Infertility: Toward an Integrative Research Agenda, Katherine M. Johnson, Arthur L. Greil, Karina M. Shreffler, and Julia McQuillan
Nebraskans who support and oppose "religious freedom" laws actually share many of the same values, Emily Kazyak and Kelsy Burke
Logics of Freedom: Debating Religious Freedom Laws and Gay and Lesbian Rights, Emily Kazyak, Kelsy Burke, and Mathew Stange
Backlash or a Positive Response? Public Opinion of LGB Issues after Obergefell v. Hodges., Emily Kazyak and Mathew Stange
Law and Family Formation Among LGBQ-Parent Families, Emily Kazyak, Brandi Woodell, Kristin S. Scherrer, and Emma Finken